U.S. charges two with defrauding homeless program

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges against two real estate executives accused, in unrelated cases, of misappropriating millions of dollars in state funds allocated to combat homelessness.

- BY ANDREW KHOURI, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN AND DOUG SMITH

ACTING U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli demanded accountability over “misuse” of funds.

(PATRICK T. FALLON AFP/Getty Images)

Prosecutors charged Brentwood resident Steven Taylor, 44, with seven counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of money laundering over allegations that he used fake bank statements to get loans and lines of credit for a series of real estate transactions.

One of those transactions involved a nursing home in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood that prosecutors say he bought under false pretenses and quickly flipped for more than double the price to the nonprofit housing developer Weingart Center Assn. To purchase the 70-plus-unit building in Cheviot Hills, Weingart used funds from the city and the state's Homekey initiative, a program to quickly convert hotels and other buildings into apartments or shelters for homeless people.

Taylor is accused of lying to the lender funding his $11.2-million purchase, saying that he intended to renovate and use the Cheviot Hills property himself.

At the time, Taylor had already contracted to sell the property to Weingart for $27.3 million, prosecutors said. The U.S. attorney said this involved a double-escrow transaction that was hidden from the lender and others.

In another incident, he sent a lender an email purporting to be an employee of another bank, fictitiously confirming that the credit line with the bank had been closed, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint says that Taylor altered real bank statements, changing the dollar amounts and bank account numbers to show millions of dollars in deposits that didn't exist.

Neither Taylor nor his attorney immediately responded to a request for comment.

The Westside Current online publication reported on the Cheviot Hills sale in 2024, disclosing that Weingart paid more than double what the seller paid.